(This post is the 51st of what will be approximately 70 posts following 820th anniversary highlights of what history now calls the “Third Crusade.” My novel, The Swords of Faith, tells the story of this legendary clash between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin.)

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820 years ago today, Henry of Champagne, a young man liked by both Christian factions in Outremer, nephew to both Richard the Lionheart of England and Philip II of France, arrived at Tyre. He informed Conrad of Montferrat that Richard had agreed with the local nobles—Conrad would become the King of Jerusalem. As part of settling local issues before leaving for Europe, Richard needed the issue of Conrad resolved. He summoned a council of local leaders and asked for their choice. Not a single one spoke out for Guy of Lusignan, the humiliated commander of the disastrous western Christian defeat at the Horns of Hattin on July 4, 1187. Conrad’s coronation was scheduled to take place in Acre. Richard placated his vassal Guy by helping him and his family purchase Cyprus from the Templars. Guy was not well thought of in Outremer. But in Cyprus, he could still command respect as the liberator of Cyprus from the reign of the unpopular usurper Isaac Ducas Comenus. (Guy had been instrumental in helping Richard complete the conquest of the island during the previous year.) Guy only lived two more years, but his family would hold Cyprus for the next few centuries. Conrad expressed unambiguous gratitude, happy to have Richard’s blessing for his assumption of the position he had been pursuing for five years. Richard’s move to secure the Christian position had worked. He could return home, confident that future King Conrad would hold the Christian position until Richard could return to take Jerusalem. But in only eight days, all of this was undone in the early evening on the streets of Tyre.